The Silence of Rusting Appliances - Shadows and Ethics in a Recycling-Oriented Society (February 2004)

The Silence of Rusting Appliances - Shadows and Ethics in a Recycling-Oriented Society (February 2004)

In 2004, Japan was beginning to confront the contradiction between the idea of a "recycling-oriented society" and the reality. However, this system is not sufficient for the daily lives of citizens. However, the system did not fully penetrate into the daily lives of citizens, and the end of the products was manifested as a landscape of unused products.

According to a nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of the Environment in 2003, 42065 televisions and 9295 air conditioners were illegally dumped. They were lying in the mountains, along riverbeds, and in the shadows of farm roads, exposed to the elements without being seen off by anyone. Resistance to the cost of disposal, the cumbersome system, and the unclear collection routes created a distance between the system and citizens, and with the addition of unauthorized disposal by contractors, the home appliances fell through the net of the system.

The Ministry of the Environment began monitoring, raising awareness, and reinforcing the system, but the real question was "the ethics of how to let go. What do we entrust to the end of things? This question is engraved in the cold silence of discarded home appliances. At a time when the idea of a recycling-oriented society was still "word-based," the silence of rusting home appliances was nothing more than a landscape that reflected the indifference of citizens and the gaps in the system.

The Ministry of the Environment's "Survey on Illegal Dumping" (FY2003) showed that a large amount of home appliances were being dumped illegally, especially in rural areas, and pointed to the avoidance of disposal costs as a background for the situation. The "Report on the Status of the Enforcement of the Home Appliance Recycling Law" (FY2001-2003) also pointed to the sluggish growth of the collection rate at the beginning of the system, highlighting the disposal costs and the lack of a collection system. Newspaper reports also reported the sight of refrigerators and televisions piled up in mountains, and called "evasion of the burden" and "vendor fraud" problematic. Furthermore, the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society of 2000 was behind this system, and the gap between its philosophy and the actual situation was quickly becoming apparent.

Thus, the coldness of the numbers and the graphic depiction in the press overlapped, indicating the immaturity of the system and the indifference of society. The silence of discarded home appliances at the time was a landscape that made visible the shadows created by our lives.